Lesson observation is an established part of teachers' professional lives within a rational policy discourse which problematises teaching. The problematisation of teaching in official documentation and pronouncements has shaped understanding and experience of teachers' professional work. By approaching this study from a constructionist perspective, and employing the What's the Problem Represented to be? (WPR) approach developed by Bacchi (2009) to examine policy-as-discourse, it is possible interrogate the role of policy in making problems, and their solutions, in very specific ways. The innovative combining of the work of Bacchi with Bourdieu's sociological lens, in particular his concept of illusio, has enabled this research to examine the investment teachers make in the practice of lesson observation and to offer an interpretative rendering of 'how it is possible for "what is said" to be "sayable"' (Foucault 1991:59, cited in Bacchi and Goodwin, 2016:36 original emphasis). The contribution to knowledge within this empirical study is in the articulation of a vocabulary of motives used by participants to make meaning of why they play the game of lesson observation and, through this, an analysis of how policy work is done in a further education (FE) context. This research finds that by playing the game, teachers and observers are, in effect, making the policy work, which in turn produces the forms of objects which have been constructed through the representation of teaching as a 'problem' in official policy; 'outstanding teacher'; 'best practice'; 'effective teaching'; 'learning outcomes'. The reification of these objects within teachers' professional lives has created taken-for- granted realities which enable the binary of professional development and performance management to make sense. Furthermore, the research reveals how, in making the policy work, teachers are in fact doing the work of policy by enacting the objective entities constituted by evidence-based 'best practice' in their teaching. Interpretation of the empirical data contributes new knowledge by proposing that teaching has become represented as a 'problem' of learning within official policy discourse and that this has created a world where learning is a duty for both teachers and learners. The thesis concludes with the recommendation put forward by participants for a democratic and collaborative system of peer review to replace the current system of lesson observation. However, this recommendation is still within the parameters of rational policy narrative in its presupposition that teachers need to improve. The thesis, therefore, recommends debate about what 'development' might mean in the context of FE.

Uppsatsen syftade till att undersöka skolpolitiken som låg till grund för Lgy 70 och Lpf 94. Specifikt fokus låg på att i utredningsmaterialet undersöka politikens styrande effekter genom att utifrån argumenten blottlägga dess människo- och kunskapssyn. Metoden som har använts var Carol Lee Bacchis What’s the problem represented to be?-approach. I uppsatsen har en analys av diskursen genomförts på det material som ligger till grund för de nämnda läroplanerna. Undersökningen har funnit att den övergripande problemtiken gällande gymnasieskolorna var att gymnasiet framställdes som omodernt och icke-anpassningsbart till samhället. Dock var det en specifik grupp elever som utgjorde problemet och som skolan var tvungen att anpassas till. Gruppen varierade mellan de olika tidsperioderna, men innefattade dem som inte klarade av skolan i dess dåvarande form. Lösningarna på den av utredningarna antagna problematiken riktades oftast mot den här gruppen och medförde att elevernas valfrihet ökades. Denna valfrihet var dock en strategi som staten använde för att styra in eleverna mot en av staten sedd ”rätt” utbildning. Den underliggande människo- och kunskapssynen i samtliga utredningar var behavioristisk. Utredningarna antog att ungdomarna till stor del påverkades av sin bakgrund och sociala klass i valet av utbildning. Slutsatser som dras är att gymnasieskolan anpassas för arbetsmarknadens behov. Utbildning anses göra ungdomarna mer kvalificerade för yrkesverksamhet. För dem som inte klarar av detta måste skolan anpassas. Således reformerades gymnasieskolan efter de lågpresterande eleverna. / The purpose of this paper was to examine the Swedish school policies that formed the basis for the curriculums Lgy 70 and Lpf 94. Specific focus was on finding the governing effects in the exanimated material by extracting its view on humans and knowledge. The method used was Carol Lee Bacchi’s What’s the problem represented to be?-approach. With this method authors conducted an analysis of the discourse in the material. The investigation of the material found that the overall problem concerning the Upper secondary school was their portrayal as outdated and non-adaptive to the society of that time. However, a group of students were represented to be the problem to which the school needed to adapt. The content of the group differed between the two time-periods (the 1960s and the 1990s), but the group included those who were not capable of managing the school of that time. The solutions to the, by the investigations assumed problem, were directed towards this group of student and resulted in an increased freedom of choice for them. This freedom of choice was however a control strategy used by the government to direct student towards a, by the government considered, “proper” education. The underlying view of humans and knowledge was a behavioural one. The exanimated investigations assumed that young people were largely influenced by their background and social class in their choice of education. In conclusion the Swedish upper secondary school were adapted to the demands of the labour market. Education was considered to make the students more qualified for their future life as workers. The school needed to adapt to those who were not capable of this.

Recently in Britain there has been an on-going discussion on the right of European citizens to move to, work and reside freely in any European Union member-state. British politicians and media, stepping on the significant number of Eastern Europeans who moved to the United Kingdom, articulated a securitising discourse representing them as ‘benefit tourists’ and criminals who threaten the integrity of the welfare system and social cohesion. However, this is only part of the securitisation story. This paper argues that the securitisation of mobile European citizens and, consequently of the right of free movement itself, is used as governmentality in order to allow in the country only those who are needed and keep the rest out, and at the same time to raise support for a renegotiation of the relationship between Britain and the European Union. It will be demonstrated that the securitisation process takes place through policies and everyday practices on the one hand, and through the securitising discourse articulated by politicians and media on the other. Moreover, the possibility of securitisation having a long-lasting effect by creating a security rationale in which all future policies would be embedded is assessed.